Bitter (Not Sweet)
by Broken Antler in Winter
Summary: It's always been about the children, the next generation. For we have always believed that children are the future. Sally Jackson Jr. isn't bitter (but she is, she is so, so bitter). -Percy Jackson dies in the Giant War, and his daughter grows up to hate his shadow so, so much-


Shut up, she isn't bitter.

_But she is bitter. So, so bitter. _

She's not, honest. Sally's father was the Hero of Olympus, for the gods' sake, and who could possibly ask for a better father?

_She is. Her father was the hero of Olympus, and she will never, ever get out of his shadow. _

Percy Jackson was a hero, an honest to the gods hero.

_He was a martyr for a cause she can't believe in. _

And you won't be able to forget, because she looks so very much like him. Black hair, green eyes, and a troublemaker's grin.

_And she won't be able to forget, because she looks so very much like him. Black hair, green eyes, and a feral, bestial wolf's grin. _

Sally Jackson will go far, you see, she'll surpass all of the expectations, because she's _his _daughter. He was the best, the strongest and most loyal hero to walk the halls of Olympus, and she has his _blood. _

_Sally Jackson will burn bright, you see, she'll burn bright and fall to the ground like Icarus, because she's his daughter in only flesh. She can't love Olympus, she can't give away kindness, and she might be the most dangerous 'hero' to walk the halls of Olympus, and she only has all of his power, none of his virtue._

She'll show you, she might just save the world. Go to Tartarus for whoever thinks different.

_She'll show them, she might just burn the world. Fuck you to whoever thinks different. _

Even if she's nothing like him.

_Even if she's everything like him._

She just knows it.

_She just doesn't know it. _

* * *

><p>There's this spark in her mom's eyes whenever Sally's mom talks about her father. It glows like the dying embers of a campfire, and then fades just as fast. When Sally was younger, she used to think that, <em>wow, <em>Percy Jackson must have been amazing to have captured the unconquerable, Annabeth Chase's heart, so wholly and completely.

Later on, she learns that, for love to happen, it doesn't take any ounce of perfection.

Annabeth doesn't talk about her love to her daughter quite often. After all, there are the things we loved and lost that hurt us the most, even if it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. There's also the fact that Sally is eleven when she finally learns about the world half-bloods and dracanae, hellhounds and satyrs, nymphs and centaurs, and she doesn't know that, if she starts, if she can stop, until all the adventures, all the golden memories laid out.

So, actually, Sally always thought her father must have been amazing. When she was younger, there was this question she'd ask, "Why did he have to leave?" It's a bit bratty, and a bit demanding, and brings up the question of whether or not Sally was ever spoiled, but it's a question and questions have answers.

"He couldn't stop it from happening. Death comes for us all, in time, and when it comes, we can fight, but it wins. Life is hard, people die, but we keep moving on."

Sally still thinks about her late, absentee father then, even if the only existence in her mind is this phantom, maybe the only person besides her that could make her mother smile.

You see, it's only when she gets to Camp Half-Blood, when she realizes that her mom died asking for "Percy? Percy? Are you waiting for me?" and that her father was the Hero of Olympus (and he saved the world but he couldn't just _save himself_) and trapped her in the fate of having to be the hero or the villain, that she starts hating him.

(In another life, she would have idolized her father, because he hugged and kissed her in the mornings, threw her in the air and told her stories about cyclopes and Furies and the Seven and how they saved the world again and again and they were a family and complete.)

(This isn't that life.)

She wants to be _normal, _because normal people have whole families with smiling children (the children of Camp Half-Blood are the ones with broken smiles and empty eyes) and long lives. She wants to be _normal, _but she's the daughter of the Great and Powerful Percy Jackson. She's the one all the monsters want to beat. She's the one the quests get handed to.

It's a death sentence, in it's own way.

The stories of Ancient Greece always ended in tragedy.

* * *

><p>The reason Sally chooses Cabin 3 isn't what everyone expects.<p>

There's no one in Cabin 3, except for a smiling ten-year old boy who arrived only a few weeks after her, and that little boy _asks no questions. _He doesn't know all that much about his half-brother Perseus Jackson and 'his sidekick' Annabeth Chase (though Sally knows that isn't true, her mom had made it clear that the Hero of Olympus was whipped), so Aiden just gushes about monsters and pegasi instead.

It's a bit cliche, she knows, but she wants to earn it, she wants to be whatever she is on her own merits, not to be compared to the shadows of _both _her parents (though she never really got the chance to know her father, so she'll say it's just him).

But she'll let them keep thinking that she did it to make her father proud.

After all-

After all-

She doesn't know anything.

* * *

><p>"A quest?"<p>

Chiron sighs. _He must be old_, she thinks, _years and years old with nothing but fading hopes and regrets to keep him going. Why does he still stay? _Of course, the answer is simple. Chiron loves his heroes too easily. They are all his children, in a way. She's been here for seven months and she can feel it, it's there.

"Yes, a quest. You may be one of the strongest demigods of this generation, Sally, with the blood that runs through your veins. Darkness is nearing, and the Fates requested you to lead this quest."

"I'm twelve."

"So was your father on his first quest." _Stop reminding me._ "He weathered through, and I have faith in you, Sally Jackson. After all, you _are _your parents' daughter." Sally turns to leave, because honestly, _honestly, _she hates it when they say that, hates it when she gets compared again and again to this- this- _ghost of a man who will never be again. _He's dead, he's dead, and he isn't even in Elysium anymore, probably. Sally knows her mother (if only a little bit) and knows that she will never let _dying _keep her down. Now that the 'greatest love of this age' are together, they'll step into Lethe as one.

Sally turns to leave, and Chiron stops her. "Sally, I have a gift for you." He hands her his father's sword, _Anaklumos_.

She doesn't know why, but she takes it, and watches with disinterest as the blade turned into a pen in her hands.

(She's seen it before, just never in her own hands, and she knows that there was a man who died wielding it. If she squints, she can almost see the blood.)

* * *

><p>The Oracle (Rachel Elizabeth Dare) has a warm, if sort of wild smile, and a paintbrush in hand. The picture on the canvas is...her. Standing up to a thousand shadows with a sword in hand and a smirk of challenge on her face. "What...is that?" she asks, because you <em>are <em>allowed to be genuinely freaked out if you're twelve years old, about to go on a quest.

"Hello, Sally," Rachel says with all the familiarity it probably warrants. You see, Sally grew up with a plethora of characters, each of them somehow related to her mother and father's secret life. Rachel Elizabeth Dare is one of them.

Maybe, if Sally were to change her life completely, this is the one thing she would never change.

* * *

><p>Let's take a break and run back, all the way back to little Sally Jackson's childhood.<p>

When she's born, she amasses a crowd. Annabeth holds her with tears in her eyes (and looks into another pair that's sea-green), and the Seven crowd about her, along with Sally and Paul Blofis, Chiron, Reyna, Rachel, Tyson, Grover, and even _Nico_, who's standing moodily in a corner (as usual). Thalia looks at the baby for one second and whispers what everyone is thinking, "What are you going to name her?"

Annabeth glances tiredly at Sally for a moment, then receives a smile from her, Paul, and Chiron each, before saying, "Sally. She's going to be called Sally. It's what her dad would have wanted."

(It's true, since one of the things that Percy Jackson loved the most in the entire world was his mother.)

For a second, the wound is still fresh, and there are tears and broken dams, before they stop to breathe and everything calms. "Jason, isn't Sally adorable?" Piper exclaims pointedly, giving him something of a suggestive look, "I'd love one..."

Leo pitches in then. "If I'm not the godfather, I swear I will _murder _Frank."

Everyone laughs (even if Frank's is a little nervous), and there it is. That one moment where you can say Sally Jackson came into this world.

Her toddler years are a blur. Her mom is busy most of the time, though hardly a cold mother. Grandma Sally and Grandpa Paul are usually the ones taking care of her, along with a multitude of babysitters who are here one moment and gone another. Leo, Piper, Jason, and Rachel are the most common visitors. She's pretty sure that Thalia stops coming by around the time she turns six, since she can't have a sitter that will always, _always _be a fifteen year old girl. Nico Di Angelo visits sometimes, and those times he usually sits in front of her and stares with an inscrutable expression for minutes at a time.

She likes Nico, since he's always so surprised when she hugs him or smiles at him or says that she loves him (she's very generous with her 'i love yous', and she loves all of her sitters since, before camp, it feels like they're her only friends) and it makes her want to laugh when he awkwardly hugs her back after she barrels into him after he doesn't come by for months at a time.

Honestly, though, Leo and Piper are her favourites, since they show her games and aren't as strict as Jason is. Tyson doesn't visit much, and her mom always murmurs something about travel distances. Grover, her godfather, comes by around a monthly basis, just checking in and bringing her houseplants that grow like nothing she's ever seen.

And, of course, there's her technical 'uncle', Rich Blofis, who's named after her grandma's own uncle, and perhaps her very best friend who's a year older than her and seems to think he knows everything. He's pretty much her best friend-

Alright, let's skip this part, shall we? Because all there is to know is that Sally has always hated school, because she can't read without a headache and can't sit still for more than a minute, but there are expectations and she never looks forward to it all, especially when her mom expects her to excel and all the students at school ask her (and kids can be cruel or kids can just not understand sometimes) where her dad is and she'll shout that _she does not know. _

She doesn't have any friends at school, and maybe she had some once, but she alienated them all.

Maybe Camp Half-Blood is she make her first friends, first _real _friends, or maybe not. Maybe she's too stubborn for all that.

So...

Deep breath.

It's some years later now.

A quest, huh?

* * *

><p>Don't look so glum.<p>

Skip ahead a few years, and you'll see, Sally survives, partially intact.

She'll be fine.

(heroes are supposed to be, aren't they?)

But now let's focus on the present.

(soon enough, past present future will intersect.)

* * *

><p>Sally Thalia Jackson is absolutely nothing like her father.<p>

_Perseus Jackson is absolutely nothing like his father. _

Maybe she's being irrational, and it's not like her dad had a choice to leave them, but he did, and she doesn't know if she can forgive.

_Maybe he's being irrational, and it's not like his dad had a choice to leave them, but he did, and he doesn't know if he can forgive. _

Of course, she does.

_Of course, he does. _

Sally doesn't _ask _to be a hero, she doesn't want to be one anyways. Being a hero is just a heavy load of responsibilities you will never be able to load off on to someone else.

_Percy doesn't ask to be a hero, he doesn't want to be one anyways. Being a hero is just a heavy load of responsibilities you will never be able to load off on to someone else. _

But, of course, it doesn't matter, because of the prophecies.

_But, of course, it doesn't matter, because of the Great Prophecy. _

* * *

><p>Her first quest is with a daughter of Mors and a son of Trivia, and maybe they just become best friends.<p>

(Don't tell anyone, though, since, even if the two camps could keep from killing each other, doesn't mean the relationship is that much better.)

"You'll be going on the quest with two Roman half-bloods around your age, and you will be leading this quest," Chiron says, "Their names are Alexandra Qi, a daughter of Mors, the Roman form of Thanatos, in her third year, and Jaden Nguyen*, a son of Trivia, the Roman form of Hecate, in his first year."

The Oracle Spirit spews some useless rhymes before Sally mutters that maybe the Oracle of Delphi should consider becoming a rap artist. Apollo, of course, might just take this suggestion seriously, so the spirit will never repeat those words. Instead of being faced with a rapping Apollo, she gets something else.

"The hearth on Olympus has been growing dim," Chiron says grimly, "You must go west to retrieve the fire and light the hearth again to strengthen the goddess Hestia. Or else, the peace that we have found, the flame of western civilization..."

"Why would I care about Western civilization? I'll just move to Turkey."

(Of course, she saves the world with these new friends and they take the fire to bring the Mount Olympus and she's a bitter little girl when they tell her that her father would be proud.)

* * *

><p>*shut up thwippy i have plenty creativity-<p> 


End file.
